Voter turnout in Wilton tops 38 percent

WILTON — Local voters turned out at a 38.7 percent clip for Tuesday’s vote, the highest rate for a municipal election in six years, according to the Office of the Registrar of Voters.

That percentage translates to 4,372 registered voters casting ballots at one of three polling places or by absentee ballot.

In 2009, a similar voter turnout — about 38 percent — turned out when the introduction of liquor stores and town Charter revision topped the list of ballot initiatives, according to Republican Registrar Tina Gardner.

Four years earlier, roughly 37 percent of the electorate came out to elect First Selectman Bill Brennan to his first term in the last contested race for that seat before this year, according to Gardner.

Brennan defeated Democrat Brian Lilly, who ran for one of the selectman spots in 2015.

The contested races for first selectman and selectman clearly drove those high numbers, as Republican Lynne Vanderslice garnered 2,937 votes to claim the first selectman seat vacated by the retirement of Brennan.